Library History Buff Website 5 Years Old

It almost escaped me that this month marks the fifth anniversary of "The Library History Buff" website . The "Library History...

Japanese Postcard from St. Louis 1904

I recently purchased a Japanese postcard on eBay that was mailed from St. Louis, MO on October 20, 1904 to a Mrs. Alice Stevens at the Libra...

"@" and the ALA

National Library Week is April April 11-17 and for the 13th straight year the "@" symbol will be a prominent part of the slogan f...

Charles Everett Rush 1885-1958

Today (March 23) is the 125th anniversary of the birth of Charles Everett Rush. Rush began his library career as a library assistant at Earl...

Spencer Iowa's Carnegie Window

The Spencer Public Library in Spencer, Iowa has become famous because of a cat named Dewey. But long before there was a cat named Dewey, th...

The Western Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) was founded in 1876. In its early years it was primarily oriented to the Northeastern states with its...

Princess Grace Irish Library

In recognition of St. Patrick's Day, this post features a Monaco postage stamp which commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the Prin...

Circulating Library Trade Cards

In the late 19th century Americans began collecting a variety of souvenirs and souvenir like artifacts. These collections were stimulated b...

Woodworking and Libraries

One of the pleasures of publishing a library history website and blog is being contacted by someone seeking more information about a topic o...

Pass it On: America's Library Heritage

I was delighted to learn that the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) of the American Library Association (...

Happy Birthday Arthur Bostwick

It is not often that someone with a Ph.D. in Physics from Yale University becomes a public librarian, but that was the case with Arthur E. ...

Charles Martel's Classification System

Charles Martel (1860-1945) was the architect of the Library of Congress Classification System . He was born on March 5, 1860 making today th...

The Roosevelt Bears at the Boston Public Library

Seymour Eaton was the founder of the early 19th century Booklovers Library and the Tabard Inn Library . He was also the author of numerous...